Why is this costume suspense drama different?

Text丨Entertainment Value Officer Chen Tong.

Editor丨Meiqi.

The past two years have been a "small year" for costume detective dramas, the market is scarce, and good works are even rarer.

The first costume drama of the Spring Festival, the all-star "Tang Jingpiao" group portrait

Before the broadcast, "The Case of Tang Di Gong" had topped the list of "Tiger Fight 2024 Most Anticipated Dramas" for many days, and multiple labels such as costume detective themes, male frequency, and large-scale made this drama attract the attention of many male fans, and even made fans of the original work look forward to it. After the premiere, "The Case of Di Gong of the Tang Dynasty" received positive feedback from many audiences, including the pertinent evaluation given by Liushen Leilei, regardless of Datang, Da Song, or Da Ming, the camera will not be distorted if it is aimed at people who really have lives.

Liushen Lei Lei shared the drama on Weibo.

For all Chinese people who love reasoning and suspense detective dramas, Di Renjie is an unavoidable name, and he is one of the most influential IP characters in Datang. Prior to this, Di Renjie's story was already a well-known classic for Chinese audiences, and there were also many excellent works in the past, and it was not easy for latecomers to break through.

Adapted from the famous sinologist and diplomat Gao Luopei's "Tang Di Gong Case" of the same name, its original work has a different temperament, and it is a work that integrates the essence of traditional Chinese public cases and Western detective reasoning. In the adaptation, the drama version retains the framework and essence of the original work, and tells the legendary experience of Di Renjie as an official from the perspective of Western ups and downs of detectives, which is unique in costume detective dramas.

The drama version also adopts the unit drama structure of the original work, using the case as a subsection, and explaining Di Renjie's legendary story in a three-dimensional and comprehensive way through independent and interrelated cases. Whether it is a breakthrough in Di Renjie's image or a reversal of the narrative that does not follow common sense, he is trying to break the traditional routine.

This drama has invited almost half of the powerful people in the entertainment industry to star, in addition to Zhou Yiwei, Wang Likun, Zhong Chuxi, etc., the supporting cast in "The Case of Di Gong of the Tang Dynasty" is also very strong, Zhang Ruoyun, Zhang Jiayi, Li Chen, Wang Jinsong, Chen Duling and other powerful factions have acting skills**. Wei Wuji, played by Zhang Jiayi, is very complicated, a moral model chooses to stand on the opposite side of Wu Zetian out of his own political ideals and personal ideas, and has to do a lot of bad things. In addition, Diao Xiaoguan played by Zhang Ruoyun is also difficult to define with simple good and bad.

Suspenseful narrative thinking, detective coolness and aesthetics**

In the past two years, suspense works have emerged in the drama market, and suspense themes have been further verticalized, high-quality, and dramatic, opening up a rather surprising situation. But no matter how involuted, its suspense concentration is still the core indicator for judging the success of this type of work.

As a detective drama, the strong sense of suspense of "The Case of Di Gong of the Tang Dynasty" is the key to its highlights, and it can be seen on Douban that the audience's evaluation focuses on the plot and the performances of individual actors. The entertainment value officer found that among the audience comments that received more likes, the rhythm of the case, the logical line and the atmosphere of solving the case were the parts that were recognized by the audience.

The structure of the unit drama is in the form of an average of two to four episodes, which clearly explains one case after another with different styles. The opening "Phoenix Seal Case" is very mysterious in terms of setting, how the so-called Tianhuo was created, and what are the details of the crime, which will fill the sense of suspense as soon as it comes up.

In the face of more bizarre cases than one another, Di Renjie's process of solving the case is very in line with the characteristics of the original reasoning, after mastering the details of the case and discovering suspicious points, Di Renjie relied on his super logic to gradually restore the real situation, and then interlocked to find the real culprit after multiple unexpected reversals. The audience follows Di Renjie's process of peeling back the cocoon, which will produce an immersive sense of participation.

On Douyin, you can see more than 100 topics related to the "Tang Di Gong Case", which are being discussed and responded to by audiences all over the world. Especially the official account of @大唐迪公案 Douyin, a slice ** received millions of likes, and more than 30,000 comments contain the audience's analysis of the case and the experience after watching the drama, it can be seen that this drama does have different perceptions and feedback in different markets.

The entertainment value officer also saw in the audience comments that the factors that generally recognize "The Case of Di Gong of the Tang Dynasty" are concentrated in the fact that the drama presents each case in the way of the Oriental Public Case, borrowing the characteristics of American dramas in terms of narrative thinking, the nine cases in the whole play are connected and independent of each other, the rhythm of the case is extremely fast, the amount of information is very large, the layers of nested cases, and the plot of the extremely scary thinking bring the audience an immersive drama chasing experience of "burning, cool, and cool". There are also audiences who are dissatisfied with the performances of individual actors, and such criticisms and suggestions are bound to inspire the future creation of the main creative team.

What is certain is that the core of the story of "The Case of Di Gong of the Tang Dynasty" is profound and realistic, for example, behind the "Fengyin Case" is actually the struggle between the old and new systems and the struggle for power. "Murder in the Desert" is more social, with complex enough characters and scenes that make the audience not know how to choose. The conflict between love and law made Di Renjie's heart feel a great impact, and he gradually confirmed his choice in the process of constantly being tortured by himself and others. The "Case of Di Gong of the Tang Dynasty", which integrates the reasoning of the Bengeist and the social school, highlights a stronger concern for reality.

The perspective of the East and the West is going in both directions, and the export of Chinese culture is still on the way

More than half a century ago, the popularity of Gao Luopei's "The Case of Di Gong of the Tang Dynasty"** opened a window for the West to understand ancient Chinese culture. So far, the original work still has 9A high score of 3 shows the artistic value of this book.

In addition to referring to a large number of materials to reproduce the costumes, palaces, dormitories, and palaces of the Tang Dynasty, the drama version also reproduces the scenes of the market class in Chang'an, Luoyang, Lanfang and Penglai at that time.

This costume detective drama with a novel perspective, a fusion of Chinese and Western cultures, and at the same time a Chinese aesthetic and magnificent imagination, has not only been warmly welcomed by Chinese audiences, but has also attracted strong attention in the international market, opening up new ideas for the overseas dissemination of Chinese stories.

In recent years, the flowering of the Chinese drama wall has become a new highlight, and the trailer of "The Case of Di Gong of the Tang Dynasty" is currently in the Netherlands, Japan, Thailand, Malaysia and other countries**, and many overseas audiences' messages have emerged under overseas social **. At present, Netflix has bought the rights to this show, and it will be broadcast in more than 190 countries and regions.